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Excellent game, both as a gta3 rehash, and on its own merits

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: November 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game is obviously based on the Vice City engine, not the one from GTA 3. Also, with a exceptions, none of the features from San Andreas seem to be present (noticed exceptions so far include the tip bar in the taxi cab missions, and [possibly] the flame on burning vehicles). The game also seems to lack any of the more annoying San Andreas glitches (like not getting on a bike properly).

While the map is essentially the same, many locations look different - many others are in the process of being built. The 'Portland Docks' are much more dynamic and impressive, and the unique jump locations are also far more imaginative. I have also noticed that the lighthouse island is accessible.

Hidden packages are in completely different places, as are unique jumps, rampages, etc... Some old, familiar faces make a comeback, including JD O'Toole (you might remember him as 'The Director' from Manhunt), and the Sindacco family from S.A. I'm not mentioning the obvious ones (like Toni Cipriani, Salvatore Leone and the radio stuff). There's a load of neat new side-mission types - like garbage truck missions, and one where you get to ride on a faggio and shoot targets while someone drives you around. The multiplayer stuff alone deserves great credit - the missions are greatly varied, and a lot of fun to play with others.

Those who missed the "indie" style of radio in Vice City and San Andreas will also dig the stations in LCS - the radio is yet again, full of made-up boy-bands and "customized" (i.e. includes references to the game) hip-hop and rap, as well as real-life Indian, Arabic, etc.. music. For the fans, Lazlow makes a comeback on chatterbox, which is now a program on a talk radio station (again, excellent material).

Overall, great game. It's both great as a rehash of a classic that will (probably) never be topped, and as a game on its own - it's well worth buying.

Great PSP Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: June 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Overview: Great game, roam among the cities, kill, save, jack cars, rob stores, buy guns.

Gameplay: Storyline is great, when you're driving a car and you finish a big mission, the radio automatically turns to LCN (Liberty City News) and tells you the story, i always loved listening in on this. The mission are medium-hard and on bigger missions it usually took me over 10 tries, im new to the 3D GTA games, im an GTA1 and GTA2 player. Anyways, some characters include Salvatore Leone, Vincenzo, JD, Donald Love, Maria, and the reverend in the church missions on Staunton Island.

Sounds: Great sounds for this game, guns sound realistic, explosions sound realistic, cars and bikes sound realistic, it's great. The voice acting is also hi quality. And i almost forgot the radio. 10 stations, ranging from rock, to indian music, to talkshows, to hip-hop and rap. And Lazlow is back!

Graphics: D*MN! I couldnt believe i could get this quality of graphics on a PSP, but i knew that the PSP graphics were already good, but not this good. It's as good as GTA3 and almost better than GTA:VC (I've played them a few tries)

Controls, tech stuff, ect. The controls are pretty simple. Here are the controls on foot:
Analog Stick: Movement
Left/Right buttons: Change weapons
Down: Free aim
Up: Special Mission
L+Analog: Look or fine aim
R: Target
Triangle: Enter vehicle
Circle: Attack/fire weapon unless a sniper rifle or rocket launcher, in which case you aim with R+Analog
Square: Jump/Zoom in while targeting
X: Sprint/Zoom out while targeting

You get used to these controls of course.
I'd give you the in car controls but im too lazy.

Loading times, very very fast, the 3 islands are seperated by a short loading screen.

The case comes with, the UMD of course, info packet which is like a mini-newspaper titled Liberty Tree, and comes with a map of Liberty City in 1998.

Movies impressed me as well, great graphics as usual and great voice acting.

also, NO MENU! You pop in the game, turn in on and it loads for 3 seconds and you're in Portland (First island)

Houses: First was a little small, 4 rooms, and only 1 garage space.
Second was better, 2 car garage.
Third, you get a big 2 story pink house with 2 garage spaces and when youre done with the game, next to the house you get loads of weapons.

Only downside is, the game was beat in one month.
:(

The Real Thing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: October 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am amazed at how polished this game is. This game really shows the power of the PSP. It literally is as good as the previous GTA games! I expected a watered down version because it was on the PSP.

The game is a prequel to GTA 3, so the environment is the same, which in my opinion is not a bad thing. That said the game has new songs and dialogue on the radio stations, and many of the automobiles from Vice CIty and San Andreas have been added.

My only complaint is that it took me awhile to get used to the controls, but overall I think Rockstar did a good job of bringing GTA to the PSP. I give it 5 stars. If you love GTA you will not be disappointed!

Grand Theft Handheld

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is the PSP game we've all been waiting for.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories lived up to the hype and even surpassed it, and it stands out as one of the biggest and best handheld games I've ever played. What makes it so great?

Liberty City Stories is an all-new game in the terms of its story, but that's about it. In fact, one would better describe it as a Grand Theft Auto III.5, as it borrows some gameplay features of GTA: Vice City while taking place in GTAIII's Liberty City. The plot revolves around Tony Cipriani, as some may remember as the owner of St. Mark's Bistro in Liberty City. He's returning to Liberty City after some jail time and his fellow Mafia family wants him to run around LC keeping the Mafia on top of things. Of course, any GTA fan knows that this means driving people around, killing enemies, or both.

GTA:LCS does a great job with its story, providing humourous (and fully voice-acted) cut-scenes between each and every mission. There's no doubt that you'll be laughing about some of the events at some point. Unfortunately, the mission design leaves a little to be desired. Like I said, this game is a lot more like GTAIII than, say, GTA: San Andreas. Therefore, San Andy's complex mission structure is left alone to return to a simple, quick approach. This isn't necessarily bad, as some of the missions can be especially difficult on the PSP's 4.3-inch screen.

At least the trademark action returns. The simple controls are accompanyed by Vice City's improved targeting system, making the game run smoothly when the action gets hot. Shooting and driving are still the main idea, and they're simple enough to do. The targeting system is done with a trigger button, and eliminating the poor sap is as simple as pressing or holding the circle button. It's as easy as that. Driving feels almost exactly the same as it does on the console, but I did notice that motorcycles are a little tougher to control. The brakes don't seem to be very responsive. Drive-bys are also a little too difficult, as they require the player to hold the camera button, left or right on the analog nub, and the shoot button. By the time you fumble around with this control scheme, you might have already driven past your intended target.

Of course, the missions and the story are optional in the mainstream gamer's eyes, and GTA: LCS caters to this. If you were a fan of rampaging around the town, the PSP version delivers. There are more "Past Time" missions like Taxi Driver, Vigilante, and Pizza/Noodle Delivery. These attention-deprived missions are quick and fun, and serve as something extra to do between missions. There are more guns this time around, including most of the ones that were in GTA: Vice City. Having this additional arsenal makes GTA: LCS much more interesting than GTAIII ever was.

The graphics sure speak words of their own. I can't believe Rockstar Leeds was able to pull off such a feat as including all of Liberty City in one UMD with space to boot. The load time that starts up the game isn't even a minute long, meaning that LCS is quickly and easily accessible. There is a slight delay inbetween cut-scenes and the start of every mission, but I'm only talking about a ten second load at most. The radio stations return as well. I never really listened to the actual music stations because they feature some really horrible, generic music...but the entertaining precursor to GTAIII's Chatterbox FM, this time called LCFR (Liberty City Free Radio), is endlessly entertaining. The voice acting is spot-on and the sound effects are recycled from other GTA games, making for a well-rounded technical package.

Overall, there's no reason why GTA fans or PSP owners should go without this game. I'll let you know that it's pushing the lines on its Mature rating, which is something Rockstar is notoriously comfortable doing. There aren't any Hot Coffee sex scenes, but the crude humor alongside the ridiculously dirty dialogue is enough to keep this game from being something that a child should play. Anyone else...pick this up. You won't be disappointed.

One of the killer apps for the PSP

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: January 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Maybe I'm still just starry-eyed from the wonders of new technological loot, and that's why I'm so awestruck by this disc. Still, when I spend $50 on something, it tends to make me less forgiving of flaws, and that has to count for something.

The Liberty City experience is brought to the small screen with great effect with "Liberty City Stories," and is well worth the cash spent. In many ways, this will feel like Grand Theft Auto III, but with a few marked differences.

The character of Tony Cipriani is much richer than the original protagonist (which isn't saying much since the dude didn't talk), adding the element of third-person identification that Rockstar picked up on with Vice City and San Andreas. The resurgence of familiar faces and voices is welcome, and the sidequests (Taxi, Emergency, Vigilante) are all here for your casual pleasure, and lend well to on-the-go play, since missions require a bit more concentration.

That said, playing the game out in public re-adjusted my social barometer. This happened once before for me, when a friend of mine was watching me play Vice City, and saw me casually plow through a bunch of pedestrians. "I think you killed that woman," he said with shock, and in response, I slammed the breaks, backed up, got out of the car, ran over to her, and took her money. You can lose sight of how vicious the behavior in this game is, and the sounds of violence and anger come out of this thing in s barrage that is not friendly to the uninitiated. The language is raw, people, so use your earbuds if you don't want dirty looks on the bus. You'll be glad you did anyways, since the stereo soundscape of this game is so well spread.

It's immersive, it's bloody, it's over-the-top and ironic. It's Grand Theft Auto in portable form, and it's pretty much perfect.

Very impressive port

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was looking forward to the GTA port, after having loved the GTA games for so long. But I was also a little leery of what the experience was going to be when ported to the PSP, with it's smaller screen and different controls.

But I'm beyond surprised at how impressive the port is! It's GTA through and through. And years later, returning to Liberty City is like going back to a town you moved away from as a kid. It's familiar but different.

Very cool stuff, if you have a PSP, this is the must have game.

Just what the doctor ordered !!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well, rockstar has done it again. I've been obsessed with this game, the loading time instant, the minigames are great and you won't believe how amazing the graphics are. I didn't know it was possible to fit so much on such a small counsel. Although I did have to get the hang of the buttons you'll get use to them in an hour are so. But I haven't mentioned the greatest thing, there's multiplayer like you've never seen it before, talk about tech. I played with might friend and we had a great time, so buy this game. It's the best game out for PSP and will be for a long time.

WOW

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: October 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is a major load blowing experience. Get it NOW! Graphics are amazing, game is the best out so far for PSP, multiplayer, the one major thing the other GTA games were lacking, just go get it. now. go. stop reading this. Peer Pressure, Peer Pressure, Peer Pressure, GO!

AMAZING

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: October 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i was not at all impressed with the psp's lineup of games before grand theft auto liberty city stories came out on it. the graphics are great, the load times are short, and if you've played grand theft auto on a playstation 2 it won't take that long to adapt to this version. this game is perfect!

GTA3+ in the palm of your hand!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: October 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i have played every GTA game so i generally had high expectations for this title. i was curious if rockstar could recreate the GTA experience on the PSP. rockstar achieved this feat and passed the test with flying colors. this is an absolutely incredible port of GTA3 to the PSP. the missions and plot are different of course, but the map is generally the same. GTA: LCS shows off the capabilities of the PSP. you can do everything in GTA3 in this game, the environment is totally open. there is also a full blown soundtrack. how did rockstar jam all this into a little disc? by far the best game on the PSP so far and a must have for GTA fans.

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